The Colorado House unanimously approved a bipartisan resolution Friday urging Gov. John Hickenlooper to grant clemency to a man mistakenly released decades early from a 98-year sentence, only to be sent back to prison three years ago — years after he’d started a family and become a productive member of his Aurora community.

Republicans and Democrats spoke for the resolution Friday, which calls Rene Lima-Marin’s continued incarceration and separation from his family “cruel and unusual punishment.” The Senate is scheduled to consider the resolution on May 4.

Lima-Marin’s wife, Jasmine, and sons Josiah, 6, and Justus, 10, received an ovation from lawmakers as they witnessed the proceedings at the statehouse that might nudge the 38-year-old Lima-Marin closer to freedom.

But it was all a bit confusing for the boys as they watched the votes tallied on the lighted board in the chamber — green for yes, red for no.

“They see the green lights light up and say, ‘Did we win? Is Daddy coming home now?’” Jasmine said. “So I have to explain that there’s still a waiting process. So they’re a little bit sad, but I think they understand that this is another process of waiting.”

Lima-Marin, now 38, also awaits a ruling on a writ of habeas corpus in Arapahoe County District Court. Judge Carlos Samour Jr. said at a hearing in December that he would not commit to a time frame for a ruling on whether Lima-Marin should be freed.

Lima-Marin was sentenced in 2000 on charges related to a pair of 1998 video store robberies — as was Michael Clifton, who also participated in the crimes. Although their sentences totaling 98 years were meant to be served consecutively, a clerk’s error listed them as running concurrently.

Clifton’s mistake was discovered and corrected during an appeal, but Lima-Marin’s public defender advised him not to appeal.

Paroled in 2008, Lima-Marin rose through a series of low-wage, felon-friendly jobs to become a glazier. He married Jasmine and became father to the two boys.

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Authorities realized the mistake in 2014 and Lima-Marin was quickly taken into custody to resume his sentence. He was serving time at the private prison in Burlington — about a three-hour drive for his family to visit — until that facility closed. Now he’s at the Las Animas facility, which is about four hours away, making it logistically difficult and too expensive for his family to visit.

Other than Lima-Marin’s court appearance in December, Jasmine and the boys haven’t been able to visit him since last August. But Jasmine spoke to her husband by phone the night before Friday’s vote on the resolution.

“I talked to him last night about what would go on today, and he was excited about it,” she said. “He just says that he keeps believing, staying faithful, and still has all the hope he had when all this first started. God is good and he knows everything will work out for the better.”

Jasmine added that the resolution’s unanimous support in the House was encouraging as she continues to hope that the family will be reunited.

“I think it definitely brings us a lot closer,” she said. “I don’t know about time frames or anything, but we’re hoping with all the support we have, that will help (Hickenlooper) lean more toward a favorable decision.”

Denver Sheriff Patrick Firman's resignation this week culminated years of mistrust from deputies and community activists, who said that was the price of filling the position with a man who was never the right person for the job.